The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Expert calls for extended virus testing
The Scottish Government may have to consider reintroducing more coronavirus testing if infection levels continue to rise, an expert has said.
Professor Jill Pell, who was a member of the Scottish Government’s advisory committee on Covid before it was disbanded, stressed the need to be “diligent” as infection numbers increase again.
Figures from Public Health Scotland show Covid cases in Scotland increased by almost a third last week – with 15,541 infections reported in the week to June 19, up 30.5% from the previous week.
With restrictions having been eased, Professor Pell, director of Glasgow University’s Institute of Health and Wellbeing, said three of the four “prongs” used to curb the spread of infection have been taken away.
She told MSPs on Holyrood’s Covid-19 recovery committee: “We have taken away the non-pharmaceutical interventions – the requirement for social distancing, the mandatory need for facial coverings etc.
“We have also removed access to mass testing, and we have also removed the idea of having a supported shielding list.
“So we are left solely with vaccination really.”
She said jabs do “reduce transmission, it does reduce severity”, but she noted “nonetheless cases are going up, and in some people those cases will result in adverse outcomes, hospitalisation, death, long Covid, so on, and there is always a threat of new variants”.
She added: “I think we do need to remain diligent and particularly think about whether we need to reconsider access to testing if the rise in cases justifies it, because it is very difficult at the moment for people, even if they want to be good citizens, to identify if they have infection and take action.”
Her comments came after the Scottish Government ended free Covid testing for most people, with it now only available to specific groups such as carers, health workers and those visiting hospitals and care homes.
Meanwhile, Dr Sally Witcher, an independent consultant in disability equality, appealed for the Scottish Government to exercise some “Covid sense” in the face of rising cases.
Dr Witcher said: “I have been basically in my house for two-and-a-half years without any prospect of leaving in the foreseeable future.”
She later told MSPs how she fears people who are more at risk from the virus “have to isolate” because “for people who are infected there is no restrictions on them going out”.
She added: “It is us who are the odd ones out here, it is us who are the outcasts.”
She told how this group feel “abandoned” and “left behind” while watching others “move on”.